What To Expect at Your Child's Kindergarten Screening

What actually happens at a kindergarten assessment test? Here's what to know.

Before your child starts kindergarten, there are a few things you'll need to take care of first. In addition to helping your child be emotionally and socially ready for kindergarten and teaching them some basic academics, you'll need to register them for kindergarten and bring them for a kindergarten screening.

Here's what to know about the kindergarten assessment and screening process before you go, what readiness skills are looked at, and what to do if you think your child isn't ready for kindergarten.

Before the Kindergarten Screening

To register your child for kindergarten, call your local school district or private school to learn about the school's process. You will likely need to provide documentation to prove your child's age (such as a birth certificate or passport) and residency (typically your driver's license and a utility bill in the parent's name).

Most schools also require vaccination and immunization records, along with a physical before starting school. The school should provide forms for your pediatrician to fill out when you register or when you bring your child to the kindergarten screening.

Purpose of Kindergarten Assessment Tests

Not all schools or school districts require kindergarten assessment tests or screenings, but they are a fairly common practice. The purpose of a screening is to ensure a child is developmentally ready to start kindergarten and to determine whether any additional classroom support may be needed. In addition to helping the transition to kindergarten, it's also important for kids to start on the right foot as kindergarten readiness indicates future academic success.

Kindergarten screenings give the school an opportunity to meet your child and are also a great way to familiarize your child with their new school.

The Readiness Skills That Are Assessed

For a kindergarten assessment test, the prospective kindergartner will typically meet with a teacher alone or in a group for about 20 to 30 minutes and will be assessed for basic kindergarten readiness skills. Some schools may look for more kindergarten readiness skills than those listed here while others may look for less. In general, you expect your child to be assessed on the following skills.

Self-care skills

Many everyday tasks need to be taught and practiced. Some of the self-care skills your child may be assessed for include:

• Can wash hands on their own
• Is fully potty trained
• Can dress after using the restroom, including fastening and unfastening buttons, snaps, and zippers
• Can put on own shoes
• Can eat lunch or a snack without assistance, such as putting a straw in a juice box and opening a lunch box
• Can put on a jacket and zip or button it closed

Language skills

At the kindergarten screening, your child's ability to communicate, comprehend, and follow instructions will be assessed. For example, the teachers will check to see if your child can:

• Be understood by an adult who does not talk with the child every day
• Speak in complete sentences of at least five words
• Follow directions that have at least two different steps, such as "Find your coat and put it on"
• Answer basic questions, such as name and age
• Rhyme simple words

Cognitive skills

Cognitive skills refer to a child's ability to gain meaning and knowledge from experience and information. In kindergartners, these skills include the ability to:

• Classify and identify objects by different variables, such as shape, color, size, etc.
• Hold a book the right way (reading preparedness); may pretend to read
• Put together a small puzzle (less than 10 pieces)
• Recognize a pattern and identify the next items in the sequence
• Correctly identify four colors
• Recognize their own name in writing
• Identify some letter sounds
• Count up to five objects
• Name at least five body parts

Gross motor skills

Gross motor skills are actions that use the body's large muscles, such as those in the arms, legs, and core. They are sometimes referred to as large motor skills. The school may look at whether a child can:

• Run
• Stand and hop on one foot on each foot
• Skip
• Walk backward
• Throw and catch a large ball
• Kick a ball in a straight line
• Walk up and down stairs using alternating feet (not stepping with one foot, then the other onto the same step)

Fine motor skills

Fine motor skills refer to the coordination between small muscles, like those of the hands and fingers, with the eyes. These skills include:

• Cutting with safety scissors, holding them the right way
• Fitting pieces into a puzzle
• Holding and using a pencil the correct way
• Drawing a straight line, a cross, a square, and a circle
• Drawing a person who has five body parts
• Possibly writing some letters and numbers, perhaps their name
• Tracing a variety of shapes, letters, and numbers

If Your Child Doesn't Seem Ready

If you have any concerns about your child's development or are worried they aren't meeting milestones on time, talk with your child's preschool teacher or pediatrician. Even though the above are considered kindergarten readiness skills, not all children master skills at the same time, especially in the wake of COVID-19. Not every child who doesn't meet these requirements will be denied entry to kindergarten. As with anything having to do with child development, children develop at their own rate, and educators can work with you to determine correct developmental next steps.

Depending on where their birthday falls, some children that enter kindergarten may be nearing 6 years old, while others may still be 4. That's a big gap at this age. Some parents choose to hold their child back and delay starting kindergarten for a year, especially if children are very young for their class or do not seem ready to start school.